I’ve been reflecting on the War Crimes happening in #Gaza and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Over the decades I’ve read, watched and met people linked with the conflict.
I thought I would share a cross section of these for your perusal.
First up is from a critical/commercial flop. Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven is one of his weaker movies. It looks at the Crusades and the Battle of Hittin and it has this one scene…
…
Balian: What is Jerusalem worth?
Saladin: Nothing.
Everything.

Pervaiz Musharraf made some choices in the beginning that contrasted sharply with the Zia era. He opened up cellular phones and TV channels. He made a point about highlighting his Turkey experience, met with politicians like Ajmal Khattak and referenced Faiz. By contrast later on His early cabinet, with the exception of the KP belt, made some surprising choices from the NGO sector with appointing Zubeida Jalal and the late Omer Asghar Khan.
His other appointments from Balochistan included Dr. Malik Kasi and as Governor CJ Amir ul Mulk Mengal

There has only been one man who successfully outflanked Pakistan’s military establishment in terms of being seen as more Nationalist . The man was ZA Bhutto.
How did he do it?
It began with a crisis, a foreign country, mysterious death & ended with a lie about a secret document. The crisis was the 1965 Pakistan-India war.
The foreign country was Russia /Soviet Union brokering a peace agreement between 🇮🇳 & 🇵🇰
The mysterious death was India’s PM L.B Shastri.
The Tashkent declaration was essentially a return to status quo.
soviethistory.msu.edu/1968-2/third-w…

Prologue: A thread about tweet🧵 threads.

I’ve been looking at collecting my various
tweet threads over the last three to four years
in one place.

So if you’re someone who likes reading my ramblings.
Beware this tweet will take you down the rabbit hole. Chapter 1: What was left of the cartoonist?
Yusuf Lodi leftist political cartoonist par excellence and
his forgotten books.
From Vai Ell from Bhutto my Master

To Benazir: A Daisy on Dust takhalus.blogspot.com/2011/10/vai-el…

https://twitter.com/takhalus/status/887083723824533504

A bit of Pakistan history here.
The year circa September 1965.
The place, the @UN Security Council special session
discussing a ceasefire proposal between India and Pakistan.
The speaker Pakistan Foreign Minister Z. A Bhutto rips into India on #Kashmir pledges to fight on! It is a bombastic speech playing to the galleries. He cites Wilson to the Americans, Algeria to the French in talks about self determination. Despite his weary country having failed to achieve a decisive victory over India he pledges to fight for a thousand years..

So 45 years ago the first of two great redistribution’s of wealth away from the Western World was in full flow.
One of these would create a the recipe for some of the greatest unrest so far this century and the other would create a economic superpower. The first was the 1973 Oil Crisis, when as a consequence of a massive US airlift support for Israel the Arab oil producers cut production and targeted the US and its allies. This would have a big impact on places as far away as Pakistan as you can see here from the OIC summit.

Watching the PMLN capitulate on FATA reforms once again, reminds one of the fickle and inward nature of the Sharif brand. And no this isn’t the first time they’ve initially accommodated reasonable demands by peripheral groups only to leave them in the lurch.
Pretty much par for the course going back as far as 1989.

The leftist cartoonist Yusuf Lodi did some stinging work in the 1970s and 1980s. The ones on the fauj & judiciary are still topical today
I owe these pics (out of print book) to kindness of @pseudorebel may he live long & prosper. This is dedicated to @askaltaf @hushamahmed